Strange brew: Kombucha drinkers feel they benefit from odd-looking fermented tea

Published August 30, 2011 in the Commercial Appeal

Liberty Sanders Bain's first Kombucha experience left a very bad taste in her mouth.

Such a bad taste, she shied away from trying it again for almost 20 years.

Bain has lupus that affects her skin. When she was 18, her aunt, who was brewing Kombucha, suggested she give it a try. "It was most assuredly weirder than anything else I'd ever tried. Hands down," says Bain. "It was a bit scary-looking to be honest."

She followed her aunt's instructions -- boiled tea, added white sugar and put it in a dark cupboard to ferment for two weeks. "What I made was so strong and tart I thought I must have made a mistake," says Bain. She went back to the stove, made more tea, and repeated the entire process. Two weeks later, she had the same product. "I threw it out, gave the SCOBYs back to my aunt and swore off fermented anything," she says.

SCOBY stands for "Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast." It is the culture that produces the Kombucha ferment. It forms on top of the brewing container and metabolizes the nutrients and sugars found within the brewed tea.

Other terms sometimes used to describe a SCOBY include "mother," "baby" and "mushroom." SCOBYs look like mushrooms, and after each batch is made, the original culture splits to form another -- hence the "mother" and "baby" monikers. The "babies" can be stored in the refrigerator and used as starters.

A few years ago, a trusted friend told Bain how much she enjoyed Kombucha, how she felt it helped her digestion, cleared her skin, and gave her lots of energy. The friend was persistent, and in the 20 years since Bain's first Kombucha attempt, she had successfully fermented other things, including kefir and various forms of veggies, so she felt more confident. "I finally caved in and gave it another try," she says, adding that this time she didn't put the brew in a dark cupboard. She left it out on the counter so she could watch it.

She started tasting it after 10 days. At about day 11 or 12 she noticed an effervescence and poured herself a big glass -- and then another. "It was nothing like the foul-smelling, awful-tasting stuff from 20 years ago. It was delightful and delicious," says Bain.

It was so good in fact that it was hard for her to share the first harvest with her husband and four sons. However, today, the entire family is hooked.

"Kombucha is simply our favorite thing to drink, other than water," says Bain. They have phased out all juice, unless they ferment it with the tea. They've gotten creative and added white grape juice to the bottling process to make it even fizzier. Bain says she has also added extra sugar, used agave, and tried tea blends and concoctions too numerous to count.

No two batches are exactly the same, so it never gets boring. "It's such a great, inexpensive, dairy-free way to add homegrown pro-biotics to your diet," she says. "It might look weird, but the taste and almost instant energy can't be duplicated."

Kombucha contains caffeine because of the tea used in making it. However, the caffeine is reduced by half during fermentation. Bain and family start with a blend of green and black teas that are both decaffeinated and caffeinated.

Kombucha can also contain trace amounts of alcohol, but it is not considered an alcoholic beverage.

There are two types of fermentation processes -- ethyl alcohol fermentation and lactic acid fermentation. Lactic acid fermentation produces things like vinegar, kim chi, sauerkraut and Kombucha. Ethyl alcohol fermentation produces beer, wine and spirits. Depending on what you add it to it, it can taste like cider, beer, or even champagne.

Greg Campbell, who owns Garden District, started drinking Kombucha off the shelf about a year and a half ago. "I was doing Bikram yoga, and I needed to replace a lot of fluids," he recalls. He was buying it at Whole Foods on a regular basis, and it was getting quite expensive, so he started researching and reading articles on brewing at home. In March, he decided to give making it a try.

"Instead of buying a SCOBY online, I started with a store-bought bottle. Luckily, it had enough of the culture particles inside of it for me to start a new batch," Campbell says.

Brewing has actually been very easy, and he's never made a bad batch. He thinks the Kombucha he brews at home tastes a lot better than the kind in the store. "Bottled Kombucha is kind of an acquired taste. Everyone who tastes my homebrew loves it right away," he says. Campbell attributes this to the fact that homebrew has a different kind of carbonation with smaller bubbles.

Now Campbell makes a new batch every week, because everyone in his shop likes to drink it. Three of his employees even took home SCOBYs to start brewing their own.

"The Kombucha doesn't taste like it smells as it approaches the nose," he says. Some people think it has a vinegary smell.

He also experiments with flavors. "Apricot is great. I also add a slice of lemon and ginger sometimes," he says.

One batch he made tasted a lot like champagne because it had a quarter cup of organic black grape juice added to it. Campbell says the added fruit stores up carbonation and explodes in your mouth like a Pop Rock.

Typically, he has a small glass in the morning instead of coffee and another small glass in the evening when he leaves work. He thinks Kombucha benefits his digestion, and he even likes to consume the "jellyfish-like particles" that can be found floating in the mixture. "They are good to consume, but it's a textural thing," he says, adding that it is normal to strain Kombucha before drinking it.

Brewing Kombucha at home is economical. "All I need to buy is a thing of sugar and two big boxes of black tea each month -- and whatever fruit I want to add," says Campbell. For the initial fermenting, he uses 10-by-8 glass cylinders meant for flowers. Then he bottles the liquid in quart-size mason jars. He likes the wide openings of mason jars and says that he knows when each batch is carbonated because the button on the lid pops.

(Any health claims for the drink are anecdotal, and not based on scientific studies.) And it is important to use common sense and good hygiene when brewing your own tea. It is also of utmost importance that only glass containers are used in the brewing and storing.

Good fermented tea always has a vinegar smell, not a musty or moldy smell. If a batch grows mold, it will be obvious and will look just like the mold you find on fruit. If this happens, throw it out and start over.

Making Kombucha is no different than baking bread at home. The pH of the tea might cause mold in some cases. Adding a teaspoon or two of cider vinegar will bump up the acidity to inhibit mold growth.

Lately, Bain has been using a continual brewing process. She bought a 2.5-gallon lemonade dispenser with a spigot. "I simply filled it up with already-brewed Kombucha and some SCOBYs I had in storage and let it sit. Now, it's now our favorite way to brew," she says. Once or twice a week, she adds about a gallon of fresh sweet tea, and it's ready in a day or two. "The dispenser is never completely empty, and if it's warm enough, it's completely fizzy-ready in a fraction of the time regular brewing requires," she reports.

In the event that her Kombucha gets overdone or too tart, Bain makes Kombucha Coolers. "Coolers are half Kombucha and half sparkling mineral water. Delish!" she says.

Basic Kombucha Recipe

4 family-size tea bags (black or green, not herbal)

Boiling water

1 cup sugar

Starter culture a.k.a. SCOBY

1 gallon glass jar (do not use plastic)

1 rubberband

1 dishtowel or small cloth

Mason jars with plastic-coated metal lids or glass bottles with rubber stoppers (a.k.a. EZ Caps)

Make tea, add sugar and stir until it dissolves. Let cool and pour into a 1-gallon glass jar. Add starter culture then cover with cloth and wrap rubberband around tight. Store in an out-of-the-way place on your counter and let it sit for seven to 10 days. Pour the effervescent liquid into a glass pitcher (save the culture/SCOBY in a glass container for another batch) and enjoy.

If you do not want to consume it in such large quantities, you can bottle the liquid with a little extra sugar and/or fruit and let it sit for another five to six days. Once it carbonates, refrigerate it. (Refrigeration stops the fermentation process.)

Enjoy in a glass, with or without ice. Use a small strainer when pouring to remove the SCOBY particles if desired.

Note: It is important that no metal come in contact with the brewed tea. Use mason jars with plastic-coated metal lids or glass bottles with rubber stoppers

Yield: One gallon.

-- Adapted from Liberty Sanders Bain

Resources

Purchase bottled Kombucha: Whole Foods, Fresh Market

Purchase SCOBYs: Nick's Natural Nook, nicksnaturalnook.com

Resource guide: "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz, wildfermentation.com

Advice, free SCOBYs: Liberty Sanders Bain, www.16ballsintheair.com, libert1n1@yahoo.com